The college basketball offseason is here, and we decided to have some fun over the next few months, ranking ALL 364 teams in D1. Number 120 is Rhode Island basketball.
Before you say we’re crazy – or that all of this is up for debate, let’s go over the very intricate process of how we came to this conclusion. We took a very statistical approach – with the help of Chat GPT – taking into consideration everything from March Madness wins and finishes, to AP Poll appearances, to conference players of the year. And then, a good friend of ours, Scott Blanchard, took our approach to the MAX.
Click here to visit the FIRST article, which explains how the formula works!
Here’s the breakdown of Rhode Island basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 1
- Sweet 16s: 2
- NCAA wins: 8
- Bids: 10
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 13.5
- Bids per season: 0.08
- AP Polls: 27
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 4
- NBA players drafted & played: 8
- Conference Players of the Year: 2
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 15
- Conference tournament titles: 2
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Rhode Island basketball
Rhode Island basketball has certainly been a top-half program in the Atlantic 10 over the past two decades. Dan Hurley took them dancing, going to the round of 32 in 2017 and 2018. Hurley, past coaches David Cox and Jim Baron, and current coach Archie Miller, have all done solid jobs of keeping the Rams competitive. They’ve had 12 winning seasons in the last 20, and eight 20-win seasons. While it has only led to a pair of tourney bids, they’ve consistently been in the top tier of the conference.
However, nothing quite reaches the level of stardom that URI put on the court in the late 1990s. Head coach Al Skinner Jr. recruited and developed future NBA star Cuttino Mobley, who helped lead the Rams to March Madness in 1997. The following year, Mobley had an even better senior season, helping take Rhode Island to the Elite 8, where they lost by just two points to Stanford. Rhode Island would head back there the next season, but this time, with another future NBA star – Lamar Odom – leading the way. Odom had a very rough start to his college career, which started at UNLV. But it ended with a game-winning three to give URI its first A-10 title.
While those were certainly the glory days for Rhody, Skinner Jr. also led them to the big dance in 1993, and his success there led him to Georgia. When Jim Harrick replaced him for the Elite 8 run and Lamar Odom’s year, the back-to-back 20-win seasons got him the job at Georgia. So sure, Dan Hurley going from URI to UConn makes big headlines, but Rhode Island had seen that story before.
But we have to highlight one URI coach more than the other. Frank Kearney didn’t leave for a better job; instead winning 401 games from 1920-48, and led the Rams to seven regular season conference titles. He also coached two-time Consensus All-American, Stan Modzelewski. On that note, Rhode Island had two other Consensus AA’s in their history, in Chet Jaworski (1939) and Sly Williams (1979).
Overall, URI has been a program fueled by great coaches and, at one point, some outstanding NBA-worthy players. Now, they’re fighting to stay competitive in the A-10, but don’t seem to have dropped down just yet. 2019-20 was the last time they finished above .500 in conference play, though, so it is a program hoping to get back to the above-average winning ways they are used to.